Elect Sonali Verma Toronto City Councillor

Asian Longhorned Beetle

This text taken from a document prepared by John Balatinecz.

The Asian Long-Horned Beetle (ALHB) is an invasive pest, and if left unchecked, the beetle represents a serious threat to a significant proportion of Toronto's and Vaughan's Urban Forests, and also to Canada's hardwood forests beyond. Species of maple, birch, elm, poplar, willow, sycamore, horsechestnut, etc. are all potential host trees of this pest, therefore, they are particularly vulnerable to infestation. Infested trees usually die within three years of an attack. ALHB is a native pest of East Asia and it most likely entered Canada via wooden packaging materials from China. The bug was first discovered in Canada in the City of Vaughan, in 2003, from where it spread to NW Toronto. The reasons why a change in the current policy is needed are listed below.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is responsible for the inspection of wood packaging materials to prevent the entry of organisms like the ALHB into Canada. The Agency failed in this crucial responsibility of prevention.
The CFIA knew about the presence of ALHB in the US since 1996, and therefore, it might have anticipated that it is only a question of time before this insect gets to Canada. Yet the Agency seemed to have failed to increase its vigilance for the inspection of wooden packaging materials. Otherwise the beetles may have been intercepted at the ports of entry.
The CFIA had ample warning and ample time (nearly ten years!) to formulate and put in place an ALHB containment and eradication policy different from the needless cutting of healthy shade trees by the tens of thousands within a 400 m radius of infested trees. Chicago and New York have done so, why could not CFIA? It seems that instead of being open to learn from the experience of others, CFIA concentrated on employing scare tactics to sell its current policy in Toronto and Vaughan. That is: "Unless we cut all potential host trees aggressively within a 400 m radius of infested trees, the Urban Forest of the rest of Toronto and all the hardwood forests of Canada will be put at risk!" The sad truth is that after the cutting of 25,000 healthy trees, the rest of the forests (urban or not) are still at risk. Chainsaw-based eradication of healthy trees is hardly "science".
In fact, any scientific basis of the 400 m tree cutting zone is only preliminary, at best. Dr. Michael Smith of the USDA (an expert on ALHB & member of CFIA's Science Panel) stated in one of his recent publications that: "Most important for eradication of ALB is that the maximum dispersal distance recorded was 2,664 m, which was a female ALB carrying mature eggs. It must be assumed that ALB can disperse at least 2,664 m." The key word is "at least". Who is to say that a sudden wind storm could not carry the bug even 5,000 m. So the futility of the 400 m cutting zone, as a defense mechanism against the spread of the bug, becomes obvious. Add to that the poor reliability (about 50% effectiveness, at best!) of visual inspection to detect and identify infested trees, then it is clear that CFIA's current policy is based on hope and little else.
Another issue is that Canada and the US are pursuing totally different ALHB control & eradication policies. In Chicago & New York, for example, only infested trees are cut and healthy ones nearby are injected with an insecticide that seems to be working. Chicago removed 1,500 trees in three years compared to 25,000 for Toronto and Vaughan in two! Yet the potential spread of ALHB is a continental (i.e. an international) problem, requiring a coordinated effort between our two countries. If the control policy in the US fails, then the surviving bugs will be coming up here from South of the border in due course.
It is the opinion of several prominent scientific and professional experts in Canada and the US that the cutting of healthy potential host trees has never stopped an invasive insect or pathogen in the past, and in the long run. If true, this suggests that CFIA is pursuing an erroneous policy. If true, CFIA already cut 25,000 healthy shade trees in Vaughan and NW Toronto needlessly, wasting millions of tax dollars.
We need to know what (if any) R&D is being conducted in Canada to develop better methods (better than the chainsaw!) to contain and control the ALHB infestation here. R&D on these urgent issues should be of the highest priority for CFIA. This is where our tax dollars should be directed, and not on ineffective tree eradication.
We, the citizens of NW Toronto, are concerned that our streets, neighborhoods, parks and cemeteries are being turned into a nearly treeless wasteland by the CFIA's chainsaw. It will take decades for new plantings to mature and restore the beauty of landscapes. We are concerned about real depreciation of the value of our properties. Generally, realtors assign from 10-23% of the value of a residence to trees on the property. How can the pittance of the maximum $300 per tree compensate for the tens of thousands of dollars we stand to loose in property values!?
The citizens and property owners, living within the Control Zone of the Asian Long-Horned Beetle (ALHB) infestation in NW Toronto, have serious concerns about CFIA's bug eradication policy, and the manner in which it is conducted. We request an immediate stop to the needless cutting of healthy shade trees, and an independent scientific review of CFIA's policy and its implementation, with appropriate citizen involvement. None of us wants to save our trees if it means the devastation of the shade trees of Toronto and our hardwood forests beyond. But CFIA can not provide any convincing evidence nor guaranties that its ALHB eradication policy is any better than that of Chicago and New York.

Asian Longhorned Beetle

Related Links: